Shaker patterns

In 2011 we visited Hancock Shaker Museum Farm in Massachusetts, and despite it being a somewhat dreary day, we had a great time among the old-fashioned uildings and their tools and utensils.  What striked me was how in the simplicity of all their handmade things was the beauty of patterns, repeats, and just a tiny bit randomness.  Here are some examples (and more photos here):

Old stamps

When I recently was back in Sweden, I picked up my old stamp collection, which also includes stamps collected by my grandfathers and my uncle.  For decades these have been laying in a box, unseen, and now they are back in the light, here in NJ.  Here is just a little preview of some Swedish stamps that were laying loose in one of many envelopes. 

And a closeup, a stamp of J O Wallin - no idea who that was, I have to find out, but it looks like he had something to do with psalms in the church.

Included in the collection are many stamps from the 30s and 40s, such as German stamps with Hitler.  They are not worth much, apparently Hitler swamped the country with images of himself.  But among the thousands of stamps from all over the world that now are in my possession again, I am sure there will be some interesting ones to feature here on the blog.

Stamp of the Day: Waffle Day in Sweden

 Today is Vårfrudagen ("Vår Fru" means our lady, and also Spring Lady, so this is an old Catholic remnant), in Sweden, and this has been changed int he public's eye and ear into Waffle Day (Våffeldagen, sounds similar). Swedes love waffles!  So, we had almond waffles for breakfast.  Homemade, served with yoghurt, locally boiled maple syrup, fresh strawberries from California, blackberries from Chile (I think), and homemade rhubarb and strawberry jam.  Very good, and thank you spring lady!

This day celebrates the day when archangel Gabriel told Maria that she was pregnant with Jesus so it happens every year 9 months before Christmas Day, = March 25, each year. In English this seems to be called "The Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary".

Stamp from Sweden showing a piece of a waffle served with cloudberries ('hjortron', Rubus chamaemorus).

Stamp of the Day: Pomegranate

Pomegranate (granatäpple in Swedish, Punica granatum in Latin) is a wonderful fruit.  It has hard seeds surrounded by fleshy, bloodred juicy arils, nested inside a labyrinth of white placental flesh (it is actually called that, botanically). Nobody really knows where it grows wild, maybe on the tiny island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean, but it has been cultivated and eaten by humans for thousands of years.  We open the fruit, squeeze out the seeds over a bowl (so you don't get red juice all over you and your kitchen), and then put the seeds in salads.  For Christmas Day dinner we are having a turkey, served with balsamic-pomegranate glazed carrots.  Those carrots are to die for....   In case you didn't know it, the apple in the Paradise in the Bible most likely was supposed to be a pomegranate, but when they translated it into English for the northerners, nobody knew that fruit up in the cold north, so it became apple instead.

Bits and pieces from the internet: stringy edition

The Ford Focus orchestra, a must see: LINK
Update: More info on the Ford Focus orchestra here.

And here is a stringy favorite! Check it out. (I love the sightings.)

I believe Sweden still is String Cheese free.  That is good for them. Except, maybe Swedes can buy it now.  I just read on the all-knowing Wikipedia that is actually comes from Europe.

Let kids make things with strings, and other things.  Make them into makers.  (Wired)

Real packages uses string. Except the US post office do not allow string anymore.  It is all tape, tape, tape....  (Shorpy)

Thoughts on anti-intellectualism

Growing up in Sweden and then living in America (= here USA) subjects you to some interesting cultural contradictions.  American culture is vast, both geographically, but also culturally, ethnically, and socially.  One of the things that have bothered and surprised me most is how some people, many of them politicians, despise knowledge and scientific facts.

For these people, I always wonder what they would say if they came to a hospital and the doctors there wouldn't know the latest and best treatments or use the most modern technology.  Oh no, they want the latest and the best science, but only when it comes to medicine it seems.  Not when it comes to the environment, climate, international politics, or making society work so it functions the best for all.  In these latter cases, science should be miscredited and seen as elitist and the opposite of 'common sense'. 

I think it has to do with the mega-obsession in the American culture of the individual, the egocentric way of thinking "me" and "I" about most things.  Strangely enough it is often based on a Christian foundation, which to me should mean sharing, fairness, and equality, but oh no, here it is much more of 'I deserve this' and 'you don't deserve that' here in the US.

I am overgeneralizing here, because there are many people and community groups that are not at all like this, but there is a general, historic, and very bothersome trend to only care about yourself and your family in this country.  That is why USA is 40 years behind Europe in environmentally friendly policies and systems, have no good affordable daycare systems, and a large proportion of the citizens have no health insurance at all.  This is a country of egoists, indeed, speaking in general terms.  [A caveat here too, some of the most generous and friendly people I have ever met have been Americans.]

I was reminded about all this when I read a very good article in a recent issue of the magazine Academe:  A Brief History of Anti-intellectualism in American Media by Dane S. Claussen.  Here is her summary of the three types of anti-intellectualism that were proposed in the 1950s, and I think they still stand, unfortunately.

"Briefly, and at the risk of oversimplifying and overgeneralizing, Rigney (and Hofstadter) found three types of anti-intellectualism: (1) “religious antirationalism,” the view that emotion is warm (that is, good) and reason cold (bad), an outlook often complemented by absolute systems of belief (primarily conservative Protestantism); (2) “populist anti-elitism,” public skepticism first of the patrician class of “gentlemen politicians” and old money (which still flares up, as against George H. W. Bush) and later public hostility toward progressive politics and support of such figures as Joe McCarthy or George Wallace; and (3) “unreflective instrumentalism,” beliefs and behavior indicating that knowledge is worthless unless it immediately and directly leads to material gain, such as profits or higher salaries and wages." (source)

So, what do you do when arugula becomes a bad word, or when media complains that the presidents wants spicy or Dijon mustard on his burger, because that is supposedly 'anti-American and elitist'.  The people here are not only crazy at times, but also very stupid, and proud of being stupid, that is the weirdest.  I don't know what to do when reason fails for these people... but it is utterly frustrating to watch.

Not what I expected

blurry, like a painting, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

...but still really nice. This is what happens when you take a photo of a stained glass window at low light and have a slightly shaky hand. You get a photo that looks like it was painted in oil, blurry by design. The window is in the Princeton University Cathedral.

The Gods must be crazy...

along with the people...

.. but I really think people must be crazier.  How is the rapture going in your part of the world?  It is supposedly to be 7000 years exactly, on the date, since Noah's flood and it is still raining in New Jersey.  But consider this - how many times have humanity changed the way we count years, months since 7000 years ago?  How can they know it will be tomorrow (= today in Australia, Asia and Europe)?

From the media:

"She and her twin, Faith, have a friend’s birthday party Saturday night, around the time their parents believe the rapture will occur. “So if the world doesn’t end, I’d really like to attend,” Grace said before adding, “Though I don’t know how emotionally able my family will be at that time.”"  

link to NY Times article - the parents believe the Rapture will occur, their three teenage kids do not)

 Q: Will the Earth end on May 21?

A: No. The Earth will stick around for a few more months of "chaos and awful suffering" before being obliterated Oct. 21.

Q: How many will be Raptured?
A: Campbell estimates 200 million. The remaining nearly 7 billion face a grisly fate - crushed in the quake, burned by sulfur, turned into pillars of salt, etc.

Q: Are exploding watermelons in China a sign?
A: Yes.

From the End-of-The-World Factsheet (yes, there is such a thing). 

I really wonder how the people that believe in this Rapture event feel when they wake up on Sunday morning.  Will they go on with their lives or seek counseling? I'd love to see their excuses on Sunday why the Rapture didn't happen.Or rather, I just wish there were many more sensible, logical people out there caring more about our planet, environment, and the people around them...

Spring Sky in New Jersey

flowering pink dogwood with turkey vulture in sky, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

Can you see the turkey vulture in the sky? It is there! Actually it is two.

This photo is from Locktown, a tiny village with a very old (with American standards) church and cemetery with grave stones leaning in all directions, and some so old that they are just made from plain flat stones from the nearby Wickecheoke Creek (yep, that is an old Indian name). More photos of this nice place on Flickr.

A wonderful time capsule find from 140 years ago

I was looking around today for some information on how weeds came to the US, and did some little googling and then I got stuck oogling the scanned copies of Hardwicke's Science-Gossip from the late 1800s (late 1872-1885 to be exact) on Google Books. Here you can find anything scientific, curious, and worth reporting, from the small to the large. Here is an excerpt on how some weeds showed up in the US, including butter-and-eggs/yellow toadflax (Linaria, called 'gulsporre' in Swedish). The culprit might have been a Mr. Ranstead in Pennsylvania.

Priests stuffing their pillows with thistles?  What do they think they are, martyrs?

And more:

(real old-fashioned plagiarism by Mr Pratt, aha!)

(And mining insects on ground ivy, or a fungus, or what?  Imagine all the amateur scientists exploring the world around them.  We need more like this today, there is so much unknown out there. 

(Mosquitos are brain-sucking monsters, in my favorite place of Gunnison, Colorado, USA, no less.)

"It will be an incalculable boon to every person who can read and think."  A bit hyperbolic, are we?  The ads are hilarious and wonderful and a true snapshot of the times. 

I apologize for the bad quality of the text images, but that is what I could get from the Google scans. You can explore more here.

The evolution of fish

Just a diagram showing the evolution of the fish symbol, originally a Christian symbol.  It seems like that the evolution- and food-linked symbols on the left have evolved a lot faster in their design than the religious ones on the right. The sushi symbol we saw in Durango, Colorado, this summer, at a Japanese restaurant of course!

(note the font - it is a new variant that needs to be added to the evolutionary tree above)

And talking about sushi, this looks delicious, doesn't it?

 Sushi galore, copyright Rebecca Chai on Flickr

OK snapshot: Thor's thunder

Runestone from the cemetery at Vallentuna church outside Stockholm. This
stone was there before the church was built in the 1100s, so it is from the Viking age.

Fork in the road ahead

Evolution street sign, originally uploaded by Colin Purrington.

This innovative warning street sign by Colin Purrington (on Flickr) would fit well when you enter Texas och Kansas or some other place where science and especially evolution is incessantly questioned. Why next 3 billion years? Because about 3 billion years from now the sun will become a red dwarf and snuff out life on Earth, most probably. At least that is what the scientists predict. I wonder what the creationists are thinking - how long do they predict until Armageddon. When LA and I were in New York recently, we saw demonstrating people with signs saying "The End of the World will be October 21, 2010". Where do people get everything from?

Swedish news in America

You don't often hear news about Sweden on American radio, but a few days ago there were not just one story but two about Sweden. The first one was about a Swedish cartoonist that has drawn the ire of islamic fundamentalists. The second was about the new movie based on Stieg Larsson's book The girl with the dragon tattoo (which has a better name in Swedish, "Men that hate women", but I bet that wasn't marketable in America). Stieg Larsson's book trilogy is great, gory and violent, but smart and a really, really good read. A new Swedish movie is out and has won lots of awards. I haven't seen it yet, but plan to. Of course the movies that are made in Sweden have to be remade in Hollywood, sigh, since some people don't like subtitles. Can you imagine Brad Pitt as a Swedish journalist? Not me.

Otherwise, everyday Sweden in our American household is mostly Kalles Kaviar and knäckebröd, a blacksmith beer opener, Swedish matches (but we are out!), and sometimes pytt-i-panna for lunch.

One more species...

God Introduces New Bird - newsline from the satirical Onion and a fun read (the link might lead you to an advertisement, just hit Skip to Article then):

Excerpt:
""Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, prepare thine eyes for the most exciting line of avian wildlife in millennia," God announced as He released an estimated 14 million first-run models into the important bird markets of North America, Australia, and Eurasia. "This new bird has it all: slicker wings, a more streamlined beak, better-than-ever capacity for beautiful song."

(Note - this is satire and aimed at creationists that believe that the Earth is only about 10 000 years old. Luckily, that is not a majority here in the US.)

Wonderful news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the next Peace Nobel Prize winner is: OBAMA. YES!!!! First Al Gore for his environmental work, and now Obama, oh, happy days! Here is some eye candy of our president.

He got it for his efforts: "to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" less than nine months after he took office. The Nobel committee believe in him too! Thank you Norway!

Traces from times past

This 1000-year old viking rune stone at Stenkvista church near Eskilstuna in Sweden says:
"Helge and Froger and Torgot raised rune-covered stones after Tjudmund, their father."
Most stones were positioned near traveling roads as memorial stones after relatives that passed away during their trips abroad. This stone still has the Thor's hammer on it, a symbol of the old norse religion, and it was carved at the time when the first Christian missionaries came to Sweden. The rock is granite, very common around here.

How Sweden is different...

...from America:
(This is part of the preparations for AREA who will leave the fatherland in about three weeks to spend two months or so in the Swedish motherland across the pond this summer.)

• All furniture made of light beechwood or pine.
• You can camp, hunt, & pick berries on private property.
• Everyone takes the rainiest month off in summer for vacation.
• Popular pizza toppings include bananas and curry, or artichoke hearts and roast beef.
• You've got to squeegee the whole bathroom floor after taking a shower.
• Plastic grocery bags made to last more than five minutes.
• Root beer is not popular. The natives think it tastes like toothpaste.
• Licorice can be salty. You'll burn your mouth if you're not careful.
• Doorknobs on toilets and toilet handles on doors.
• Asking for "peanut butter and jelly" is like asking for "rock candy and frosting."
• A person who speaks only one language is rarer in Sweden than a polyglot is in the USA.

These things are all true! I can confirm all of them, even the squeguee.
(complete list here, from a website preparing mormon missionaries for Sweden)

Angelic pig piece

Certain themes never go out of style. Like bacon! And Christmas. Here is bacon combined with Christmas for extra crispness.

Strange combinations

The Catholic patron saint St. Fiacre is in charge of (hold on!): gardeners, French cab drivers, and people suffering from haemorrhoids and veneral diseases.

What a combination. I can understand the connection between medicinal plants in gardens and diseases, but what are the French taxi drivers doing in there? Like Magnus, Brasse, and Eva said in the Swedish childhood TV program: - En ska bort! (one has to go). [this is kind of an internal joke for people that grew up in the 70s in Sweden]